Best portfolio management & monitoring tool?

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

I have only recently started investing in individual stocks, and am looking for a good online portfolio monitoring and management tool - preferably free, or at least fairly cheap. Either web based or in the form of an iOS app.

I have signed up to ThisIsMoney, and set up a portfolio in their “Power Portfolio” tool. It does everything I want, tracking dealing costs and stamp duty. But there’s a big problem: the share prices are frequently wrong. At the moment it’s reporting SDRY as 1283p, when Google and the LSE web site say it closed at 1287p. BVIC, it says, is 824p; Google and LSE say 825p. RMV it says is 4,888p; Google and LSE say 4,893p. And it isn’t that it’s reporting the bid or offer price, because its quoted price doesn’t match either - it’s simply wrong!

What’s worse, I’ve noticed that the share prices on Power Portfolio go utterly mental within half an hour before the market opens in the morning. It’s just not reliable at all.

So what is the best tool to use?

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Unusual not to receive any replies at all!

Any thoughts on good portfolio monitoring tools?

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

DoubleSix said:

I haven’t checked but if you are not being quoted a dual price it’s likely displaying the mid.

There are plenty of times, even when the market is closed (so 15 minute delay isn’t an issue), when it displays a price that isn’t between the bid and ask.

The mental prices in the half hour or so before market open are truly mental - like, perhaps 25-30% below the price that the market closed at, and not at all reflective of what the market subsequently opens at. So for example, one instrument I’ve invested in closed at about 1300p a few days ago, the quoted price half an hour before open the next morning was 1100p, but it actually opened at 1303p.

I’ll have a look at some of the suggestions - thanks!

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Perhaps it is just the effects of SETS, in which case I will simply not pay too much attention in the half hour before and after the trading day. It still shows slightly odd prices during market close though. Maybe I’ll stick with it.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Okay, so there are clearly some subtleties of share pricing that I’m missing.

Can someone explain this to me please? Bear in mind that at the time of writing it’s a Sunday afternoon of a bank holiday weekend, so the market is well and truly closed...

Superdry SDRY.L
Google quotes 1303p
Built-in iPhone app quotes 1303p
Fidelity quotes 1300p
Power Portfolio quotes 1300p
London Stock Exchange web site quotes 1299p, bid 1296p, offer 1299p

What are Google, iPhone, Fidelity and Power Portfolio quoting? It can’t be a mid price, because they’re all outside the bid/offer quoted by the LSE (which I presume is the reliable source...?)

Edited to add: With the market closed and stationary, Power Portfolio and Fidelity agree on the prices of all my holdings. But Google and the iPhone disagree on some, but not all, of my holdings.

Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Sunday 27th May 14:28

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

MisterJD said:

Some are showing the closing price, others the price of the last trade.

So why are there three different prices? (1299, 1300, 1303)

I assume you mean that there may have been additional trades after hours, and I understand that it can take some time for the “last trade” to be determined, and that this is likely to differ from the price at the bell. But it’s been nearly two days since close of business on Friday, so surely the “last trade” should have been determined by now?

Assuming the LSE site is giving the official closing price, then why is there a discrepancy between the other two prices?

Is one of them possibly a mid price between the bid & ask of the last after-hours trade, where the other is either the bid or ask price for that trade? As I say, the 1300 and 1303 are both outside the bid/ask for what I assume is the closing price.

Why don’t sources make it clear which price they’re quoting?

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Certainly an Excel spreadsheet doesn’t cut it because I’d want real-time updates, and also they don’t work terribly well on mobile devices in my experience.

I think I’m leaning towards keeping “Power Portfolio” and simply living with the fact that it goes a bit mental just prior to market open.

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone!